AC/heating strategy for range at low temps

[TomekGnomek]

Hi, we are having 0-5C in Poland at the moment and I noticed the power consumption is up from ~20kwh/100 to ~30kwh/100. This is with AC ON, vents set to AUTO and temp to 22C just like I had when temps were in the 10-20C range.

However... when I turn the AC off (there is a button MAX/ON/OFF) I still have the ability to set te temp to 22C, the car is warm inside and you can feel the vents blowing warm air but the consumption drops dramatically from 30kwh/100 to ~22kwh/100. Could it be just residual heat from the heat pump?

The manual is a bit vague on this one so I was wondering how does it work?
There are a couple of different settings for climate control:
- MAX
- ON
- OFF with a button (vents working and it seems you get heating)
- OFF like OFF in the climate control menu (no vents working)
- ECO in the climate control menu (gets cold after a while)
- plus in the menu there are two options for vents hi/low

What is your experience?

 

[spife]

Ac is used to dehumidify the air inside the cabin, heating is never done by ac.

 

[byebye]

Ac is used to dehumidify the air inside the cabin, heating is never done by ac.

Are you sure?
It was the case for ICE, but not for recent EV. The point is to improve efficiency under cold conditions, not only to heat the car interior, but also the battery

 

[spife]

I believe the heating source is heat pump which is to boost efficiency. The pcm uses ac to refer to cooling functions as here in north America, ac is exclusively used to refer to supplying cold air. Technically they are the same things. Plus, the design makes transition from ice to ev much smoother so people don’t get confused.

 

[byebye]

I thought it was the same “pump”/compressor for both purposes… but indeed, I’ve never gone deep

 

[nulled]

I noticed that rear vents would also work even if there is nobody occupying the seats. They usually sync with the front but if you turn off sync for the front passenger seat, the rear reverts to some default value for the fans which is 3 or 4 and I think that is what consumes the extra energy. I had the same issue with high consumption even in 15-20C, after clicking sync or turning off the rear climate control, consumption drops to the usual 20. Hope it helps.

 

[Awaz]

@nulled
Regarding that sync, is that because you have 4-zone climate control?

 

[nulled]

@nulled
Regarding that sync, is that because you have 4-zone climate control?

Yes. I am not sure if it applies for 2 zone climate.

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